and other adventures in Southeast Asia

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I am sitting in the Singapore airport where we have an 8-hour layover. Given this ample amount of time, I thought it would be a good idea for me to write one last blog post–a farewell. Thank you to everyone who has read this blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing Indonesia through my eyes for the past 2 months.

Bali was amazing-beautiful-gorgeous-fantastic-relaxing and all around stupendous. I could give you a really long description about the awesomeness that is Bali, but that will take too long, and I am exhausted. See pictures at the bottom of this post.

For my last post, I will try to some up some of the major lessons I’ve learned in Indonesia. I’ll keep the list to the three biggest ideas that I am taking home with me.

1. English is hard! I came to Indonesia thinking that everyone I would be working with would speak English, and for the most part that was true. However, not until I spent time with the students and staff did I come to appreciate what a feat it is for someone to learn English. Struggles with pronunciation, emphasis, synonyms, grammar and mechanics for the past 2 months have just made me more appreciative to have grown up in an English environment. Kudos to the Sampoerna kids for learning as much as they have in such a short time!

2. Different doesn’t mean wrong. This was a tough lesson to swallow. It makes sense in theory. As educators, we are taught that every student has a different background and therefore a different perspective. Every student brings something different to the table, and there are infinitely many ways to approach any problem. Yes, it makes perfect sense. In practice, it’s a little tougher. Only when I was thrown into a culture, a way of life, that is completely different from my own did I really come to appreciate this idea. I found myself saying things like “why on earth would they do it that way?!” or “what the heck?!” in so many different situations simply because something was not done the same way as I am used to. Just because some person/company/group approaches something differently than I would (even if it is incredibly inefficient), it doesn’t mean they are wrong. It just means that we all see things differently, and we can certainly learn from one another while celebrating our differences.

3. Sometimes, you just have to go with the flow. In Indonesia, “rubber hour” was perhaps the most frustrating thing to deal with. When someone says “7 pm” that doesn’t necessarily mean “7 pm”. It could mean 7, or 7:30, or 8, or maybe not until 9. The lack of urgency was down right aggravating at times. In Indonesia, there’s no such thing as a waste of time. So when your about to board a plane without a crucial document, leave it to the flight attendant to joke around with his friends and wonder around a bit before giving you necessary instructions on what you must do before you can board. AAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!! But, there is also an important lesson to take from this. In Indonesia, there is no such thing as a waste of time. Sometimes we are in such a hurry to reach our destination that we forget to enjoy the ride. By the end of the trip, I found myself thinking “well, we will get there when we get there.” Who cares if the car ride took an extra 5 hours, we got there eventually didn’t we? Does it really matter that dinner was an hour later than expected? We still got to eat. For someone who generally likes to know the schedule, I am coming back to the US so much more flexible and patient, and I have Indonesia to thank for that.

Well, that sort of sums everything up. Thanks again for reading! Enjoy the Bali/Gili T pictures below. We certainly had a great time!!

As of today, I am officially done as a student teacher. Wow. I guess that means I can in fact call myself an actual teacher now? Wow. I’ve had a heck of a week, and leaving is bittersweet. I’m so excited to be home, but I’m going to miss everyone here so much!!

Some students from grade 11 and my cooperating teacher gave me this gift to remember Indonesia.

This week was interesting because my cooperating teacher was gone. I was the sole math teacher for grade 11 all week. On Monday, a couple students came into our office bearing gifts from their homes. The parents of one these students gave us traditional “clothing” from Papua, their homeland. The “clothing” is called a koteka. Google it. I am honored to have such a traditional, Indonesian souvenir that is extremely important in the field of anthropology to take home. Tuesday, I was happily surprised at the end of class. The whole class, on some sort of cue that I did not notice, just started singing! They were singing their “happy birthday” song to me. I was thoroughly confused because my birthday is in December, and the students know that because they’ve asked me. When the song was over, they told that they know it’s not my birthday, but they wanted to give me a present. Then, I was presented with a smallish box and a handwritten note that they had all signed. I opened the gift to see a Barbie doll. Again I was confused, why did they want to give me a doll? After further inspection, I realized that it wasn’t a normal American Barbie, it was an Indonesian Barbie dressed in traditional Indonesian clothing. How cool is that?! They wanted to give me something that would help me remember them and Indonesia, and they couldn’t have picked something better. I had to hold back tears as I read the note and said goodbye. Saying goodbye to students that I’ve grown to love is something I know I will never get used to as a teacher. The students here have captured my heart, much the same as my 7th and 8th graders did in my first placement at Colo-NESCO. Here is what the note said. Please bear in mind that these students are still learning English, so it’s not perfect. It is, however, one of the most wonderful gifts that I’ve ever received.

Dear Becca,

The essence of maths is not to make simple things complicated, but to make it become simple.

It was lovely to have you as our teacher. Well, maths turn into a very exciting lesson and easy to be understood.

Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than ones with all the facts.

We believe that you’ll become a great teacher in the future🙂 We love you so much❤

We’ll miss you.

Ibu Erma (the principal) invited us onstage to say some words to the students.

Since today was our last day, the principal brought everyone into the hall and presented each of us with a signed photo of all the teachers (they had written nice notes on the back) and then we were asked to share some words with the students. I was pretty emotional (big surprise) and had to hold back tears as I thanked everyone for a truly amazing experience. As I was called to the stage, I had one of those Sally Field moments (they like me they really like me!) because the students of grade 11 started cheering and shouting BE-CCA! BE-CCA!! I am going to miss these students so much! After the assembly, one of the sections of grade 10 wanted to throw us a going away party. They presented us with gifts and sang to us. Once again, it was hard for me to keep from crying. Have I said how much I’m going to miss the students? I’m going to miss the students so much!!!!

One of the sections of grade 10 threw us a going away party.

Tomorrow morning (Friday), we board a plane bright and early to Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia). In Jakarta, we will attend the Emerging Leaders Conference where we will speak about educational issues and American strategies to rooms full of international educators. After the conference, we head straight to the beautiful island of Lombok for our last hurrah. Lombok is situated right next to Bali, and is supposedly even more beautiful than the famous tourist destination. We’ll spend a full day there on the beach swimming, snorkeling and relaxing. Then we’ll head to Bali. In Bali we plan on seeing some of the cultural things (traditional dances, temples, etc.) and just enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Tuesday night, we’re back in Palembang. On Wednesday, we have one last day to pack our things, say goodbye, do any last minute things we couldn’t finish before, and then we’re off! At 6:15pm we board a plane to Singapore and our long journey home begins. Thankfully, the flights back home are slightly shorter than the flights here. Coming here took about 40 hours, and going home will take about 34 hours. Our flight is scheduled to touch down in Des Moines around 4pm on Thursday, May 5th. I have graduation ceremonies on Friday and Saturday, and then it’s over. After that, I am officially no longer a student of Iowa State University. In a little over a week, I go from ISU student to ISU alum. Wow.

The past week has been a whirlwind. It’s starting to sink in that my time in Indonesia is coming to an end—I’ll be home in a little over a week!

Last Thursday, my cooperating teacher came into our office and asked “Becca, what would you like to do for Additional Math today?” My reply was something like “uhhh, well, ummm, uhhh…” I have yet to teach this class (these are the truly gifted math students who can do mental calculations faster than I can do paper ones), so I was caught a little off guard. I had about an hour to plan a lesson that was challenging enough for some of the brightest students in the school. Challenge accepted! It ended up being okay! We did a lesson on division of polynomials, remainders, and factors. The students picked up the material very quickly (they’re basically geniuses), which was good because my cooperating teacher suggested I take it easy on them. They had just taken some practice IGCSE exams, and they were very stressed about the results, so we wanted to give their brains a bit of a break from the extremely complicated topics they have been dealing with. This coming Thursday, we are going to dive into some calculus material, which I am very excited for! The students in this class are the type students that many math teachers dream about teaching–they love math, they love to practice math, they’re good at math, and they want to learn as much about math as they can.

There was no school on Friday because in was Good Friday. Out of about 190 students at Sampoerna Academy, only 8 are Christian. Even though this is an extremely low percentage, the school still recognizes the Christian holiday because there is so much emphasis on religion in Indonesia. All students take a religion class at Sampoerna Academy. Anyway, since we had the day off, we used our 3-day weekend to visit the coastal region of Lampung. Several of the teachers are from this province, so the ISU crew, along with several other people from the school hopped into a couple cars and we were off!

It took about 18 hours to get to Lampung, so we were ecstatic to get out of the car when we arrived. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous! Our little bamboo bungalow had its own dock that faced a beautiful sunset. On Saturday, we woke up early to go on a dolphin tour. Kiluan, the area of Lampung where we stayed, is on the southernmost tip of Sumatra, and there are dolphins that live right off the coast. It was so amazing to be surrounded by tons and tons of dolphins as they swam around our little fishing boats. They are fast little guys, so it was very difficult to get pictures. You’ll just have to take my word for it—if you have the opportunity to observe a bunch of dolphins in the wild, do it!

Next came the part of the day that I was most looking forward to. We hopped back into the small fishing boats and headed to a small island nearby. When I arrived in Indonesia, I realized very quickly that I have never been to a real beach before. I’ve been to a lake, but that hardly counts. I’ve even been to Nice in France, but there’s no sand there. It’s beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but the beach is all rocks. My first beach experience was amazing. White sand and turquoise blue water…wow…it was fantastic. Our day on the beach included swimming, snorkeling, more swimming, and more snorkeling. It was perfect! And I only got a little bit sunburned!

We arrived back in Palembang very late Sunday night/early Monday morning just in time to get ready for our LAST WEEK OF TEACHING! WHAT?!! I cannot believe that this is my last week as a student teacher. The time has flown so quickly!

This was the view from our bungalow's dock.

Indonesia is so gorgeous. You should probably go there if you have the opportunity.

There were so many dolphins! They're fast little guys, though, so they're difficult to photograph.

Yep, I'm a tourist. I felt obligated to write my name in the sand and take a picture.

Kuala Lumpur is best known for the Petronas Twin Towers which are some of the tallest structures on Earth.

This weekend provided another opportunity for travel, which we gladly accepted! Joe, Elisabeth and I headed to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday after school. We arrived without incident, and were surprised to find out that the airport is quite far from the actual city. It took us about 45 minutes to reach our hostel. Once we got there, we

Joe, Elisabeth, and I were excited to be in Malaysia!

were absolutely exhausted and went straight to bed. This was my first experience staying in a hostel, and it was actually pretty fun! Yes, it was a little dingier than a hotel. No, there wasn’t a maid to make our beds and give us fresh towels. No, the beds weren’t super comfortable. But, we had a private triple, we got hot showers, a towel, free milk and cereal for breakfast, and best of all, I paid about $25 for two nights. In the morning we woke up and headed out early… without much of a plan. The woman who works the hostel gave us some great tips, but we didn’t really have any idea what we wanted to do or where we wanted to go.

I love seeing cities with beautiful, tall buildings!

Following the advice of our “concierge”, we took the monorail to the Petronas Twin Towers. When you Google “tallest skyscrapers in the world” these towers show up as being pretty darn tall. It was cloudy and rainy, so we didn’t try to go to the top because we wouldn’t have been able to see anything. We did try to go up to the bridge that connects the two towers, but no dice. Apparently, you have to queue early in the morning if you want to go up because they only sell a limited number of tickets. At 10am, they were completely sold out! We weren’t too disappointed, though. We dinked around in the gift shop for a little bit to avoid the heavy downpour, and I bought a souvenir cup (what can I say, I’m a sucker for souvenirs), then we headed back out to see the city.

Joe and I posed in front of the massive skyscrapers while it rained.

This pelican wanted to be my friend.

After the towers, we headed down some street that seemed like it would be cool. We figured out very quickly that none of us are the kind of people that like to wonder around without a destination in mind. After a little frustration (we didn’t really know where we were or how to get anywhere) we stumbled into the Central Market. We wondered around there for a while looking at various stalls that sold everything from clothing and fabric to souvenirs to jewelry to figurines. We ate lunch and went back out into the city. This time, we decided that we would visit the bird park and flower gardens nearby. It was nice to finally have a goal. As we walked, we came to a rather large hill. That’s part of being a tourist, I thought, sometimes you have to walk in order to see the things you want to see. It wouldn’t have been so bad except the sidewalk is made of tile–slippery tile. Don’t forget that it was raining. Here’s a simple math equation simple enough for everyone to understand: rain + tile = death. After several near death experiences, we finally made it to the aviary where we walked around and mingled with the birds. The birds aren’t scared of people at all, and they walk right up to you! We left the aviary and headed to the Orchid and Hibiscus garden nearby. It sounds lame, but it was actually very pretty and relaxing to walk through. The flowers were gorgeous, and while we were there, the sun started to come up. I had a good time playing around with the settings on my camera and ended up getting some pretty cool photos.

Since the sun had come up, we decided that it would be cool to see the city from high up. We headed to the KL Tower, which is one of the tallest communication towers in the world, and we got some great views of the city! The tower is very close to the height of the Petronas Twin Towers, and we were able to see pretty much everything—including the Twin Towers. As someone who likes looking at buildings, I really enjoyed myself!

Arguably, the best part of the weekend came next. We asked a guard for a dinner recommendation. He showed us to a street where we found tons of restaurants with all different types of food. We decided to eat at an Irish place. I know it sounds like a copout… we were in Malaysia, why didn’t we eat some Malaysian food? The answer is simple. We didn’t want to. I’m sure Malaysia has many things to offer in terms of cuisine, but in the 6 weeks that I’ve been in Southeast Asia, I have been pushed out of my comfort zone

The views from the KL Tower were incredible.

the most with food. I think we all wanted something reliable that we knew we would like. The restaurant we picked couldn’t have been more delicious. The french fries were the best I’ve ever eaten–seriously–and our meals were to die for. Seasoned ground beef, perfectly cooked fried fish and a yummy club sandwich were just what the doctor ordered. The winning dish definitely goes to Joe’s cheeseburger. It was perfectly seasoned and juicy, but the best part was not the meat. On the burger, there was a fried egg, cooked over-easy. I’ve never tried eggs on burgers before, but it was so mouth watering that I will definitely be doing it when I get home!

Since I’ve been in Southeast Asia, I’ve been to Palembang, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur–all great places! This weekend we are headed to the region of Lampung, where white sand beaches and dolphins are the norm. Yes! I’ve been waiting for white sand beaches since I got here! After that, we have one more week of teaching, then we head to Jakarta for an international teacher conference where we will prepare a presentation. No pressure or anything…!^#%^!@#*?!&#$%??!… After the conference, we’re headed straight to Bali (YES!!!) and then home! Traveling these past two weekends has been a blast and I can’t wait to do some more!

This past week was a little bit different than other weeks. Grade 11 (the only students I teach) were taking practice IGCSE exams all week. This meant that we had a different schedule than usual. Teaching here is making me a more patient and flexible person. We found out on Monday morning, during the routine morning meeting, that there would be no formal class for grade 11 until Friday. Alright, I said to myself, I’ll just go with it! I was relieved to know that I would have the opportunity to plan a unique lesson for Friday that didn’t have to conform to any specific standards or content area.

One of the IGCSE subjects that students were preparing for was English. Their English exams include a written test that covers reading and writing and an oral conversation test. The students were most anxious for the conversation test. See, they’re great at studying, and they are more than willing to work hard, but finding someone to practice conversing with in English (that can actually help you with pronunciation and other stuff) is hard to find in Palembang. Lucky for the students of Sampoerna Academy, there are 4 enthusiastic, native-speaking bule who are more than willing to help! Joe had the great idea to put up a sign-up sheet for students to choose times to come and practice speaking English with one of us. It was an tremendous success! We normally go home around 3:30 every day, but we were completely booked until 5 every day! All we did was practice conversing. Their real oral exams were on Friday and Saturday, so we knew that we weren’t going to help them learn more English in 3 short days. Our goal was to simply get them talking and help them be more comfortable and confident with the skills they do have. I felt like I was actually doing something to help the students. I wasn’t teaching math, but that’s okay. I was using a skill that I happen to have (speaking English) to help students succeed. That’s enough for me!

On Friday, we had normal class. We didn’t have specific content to cover, so I had free reign. I decided that I wanted to play a game. The students had a stressful week with their exams, and I thought that it would be fun to take a break from the normal math class with a little friendly competition. We played Jeopardy because then it was easy for me to work in practice SAT and ACT questions. The students and teachers have wanted us to help them prepare for American university entrance exams, so this was a golden opportunity. My Jeopardy categories included trigonometry, polar and Cartesian coordinates, algebra, SAT practice, and ACT practice. The students here LOVE competition… that’s probably an understatement. The LIVE for competition. We broke into teams, and off we went! I could tell the students enjoyed the game, so it was a lot of fun. I’m going to use the same lesson this coming Tuesday with other other section of grade 11. Hopefully, by the third time I do the lesson, it will be perfect!

This weekend, Elisabeth and I traveled to Singapore. BEST DECISION EVER! We left Palembang on Friday afternoon for the big city that’s also an entire country. We couldn’t find a cheap direct flight, so we had a layover in Jakarta. We had some minor…okay major…difficulties. Not only is the Jakarta airport tricky to navigate (not much English and very confusing), but there are very strict rules regarding documentation you must have with you before you can board an international flight. I’ll keep the story short and just say that I definitely got my exercise. Picture a movie where the main character has to race through the airport in a life or death situation… that was us. We literally had to take off our shoes in order to sprint faster. It was a frustrating start to the trip, and our struggles continued when we touched down. Our plan was to take a taxi from the airport to where we were staying. We’d been told that credit cards are accepted everywhere (including taxis) in Singapore. We got in the line for a taxi and when it was our turn, the driver said that he didn’t accept credit cards. Having very little Singapore cash, we were frustrated, and since it was late at night, we were also tired and grumpy. However, our frustration ended here. A young gentlemen saw our disgruntled faces and asked where we were going. “Commonwealth MRT,” we said. He responded with “Oh that’s near my place, we’ll share a cab.” We entered the cab, and he refused what little money we had. He said “No no, we share. You don’t have to pay.” He was so kind, and from then on, our trip was nothing but awesome.

We were blown away by the city from the moment we arrived.

Visitors to Singapore should research fines ahead of time. Signs are posted, but not every fine is listed.

The first thing you notice about Singapore is how incredibly clean everything is. It was a stark contrast from Palembang, where we’ve been living for the past month. While Palembang is chaotic, cramped, and to be honest, a little smelly (it’s an industrial city, what do you expect?), Singapore is the definition of order. Everything is tidy, neat, and efficient. There are clear maps and diagrams to show you where to go in Singapore, while in Palembang, I have yet to see a city map. There are signs posted everywhere warning people of all the fines. Some include no smoking, no chewing gum, no littering, no jaywalking, etc. For a full list, consult Wikipedia-there are A TON of fines… hence the title of this blog post. Hey, they have to keep the city clean somehow!

There were some cool things to look at on our way to the Flyer. This wacky ball thing was cool looking.

Our taxi dropped us off at the apartment where we were staying. We were very fortunate to have Sara, Elisabeth’s sorority sister studying abroad in the city. She volunteered to house us for the weekend and show us around. She met us on the street and led us to her apartment where we were given beds, water, and most importantly for Elisabeth, milk and cereal. The next day, Elisabeth and I had a lunch date with an ISU graduate. The meeting was set up by Elisabeth, who happens to be friends with Dr. Geoffrey, the president of Iowa State. Dr. Geoffrey set her up with the graduate’s contact information, and he volunteered to take us to lunch. We were treated to the finest wine I’ve ever had, tomato soup, prime rib, vegetables and potatoes. During lunch we talked about everything from our personal histories to mathematics to international experiences and more. It was great to talk to someone who came from Iowa State as an engineer and has become so successful on a global scale. After lunch, he took us to another club where we had wonderful desserts that reminded me of home. It was a great start to the day!

We enjoyed seeing the city from aboard the Singapore Flyer.

After lunch, we met up with Sara, and headed back to her apartment to change. We’d been wearing dress clothes because the club we were at required collars and didn’t allow jeans. I was so happy to put on a pair of shorts to walk around in! Despite the heat in Palembang, I haven’t been able to wear shorts or tank tops because the city is very modest and conservative. Sara took us to Arab street where we found a cute little aromatics store. Elisabeth and I both bought some perfume (super cheap, too!) and we had dinner at a Turkish restaurant.

Singapore is one of the most gorgeous places I've ever been.

After dinner, we headed downtown to the center of the city. We decided to ride the Singapore Flyer, which was amazing. It’s a giant ferris wheel where you can see wonderful views of the city. The big wheel is always moving. From far away it looks stationary, but when you get close, you see that the glass capsules are just moving very slowly. The whole ride took about 30 minutes, and it was well worth the S$30 we paid to do it. (1s$ ~ $0.75) Once the ride was over, we walked around for a while and just enjoyed the beautiful city. I was so grateful to be in a western city for a little while. This trip was exactly what I needed in order to finish strong. I’m feeling great about the next few weeks, and I can’t wait do some more traveling in the coming weekends! Next stop: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!

Yep, we’re over halfway done with our experience. Where has the time gone?!

Last week was certainly a good one. Our Iowa State supervisor spent a few days with us, and we couldn’t have had a better time.

These are for me?!? (Hooray for math books! – April 5)

I'm so happy to finally have resources in English!

I was in class when she arrived, but when I returned to our office it was like Christmas. She’d brought me presents! There, on my desk, was a huge stack of math books. I have never been so happy to see textbooks in my entire life. Plus, I love math, so math books are always fun to look at. Thank you to my former professors who sent them! Anyway, I’ve been teaching from a curriculum that is written completely in Bahasa. These books will be so helpful for me and for any future student teachers who come here to teach math. My cooperating teacher is even excited to look through them. This was definitely a great start to the week!

You want me to sing?! (Dinner/Karaoke – April 5-6)

The principal and I are rockin' out to "I Will Survive".

On Tuesday, we had dinner at a fancy Japanese restaurant (on ISU’s dime) with our supervisor, principal, Pak Ade-the head of Education in South Sumatra, and some teachers. I really liked the sushi, but I know it’s not everyone’s favorite. We had a great time just talking and joking around with one another. Wednesday’s dinner was a bit of deju-vu. Pak Ade took the same group to the karaoke restaurant we’d eaten at only a week before. After dinner, of course it was karaoke time! Daryl went up there with our Principal and called Elisabeth to the stage. I reluctantly followed after much persuasion. Those of you who know me know that I’m not exactly what you would call a good singer. I held my head high and we performed “Dancing Queen” by ABBA. After that one, Daryl suggested we do a reprise of “I Will Survive”, so Joe and Nick joined us for an enthusiastic encore of the Gloria Gaynor hit. After us, others took turns and then the ISU crew went back to the stage, this time with our supervisor. We sang “Can’t Help Falling in Love” because it was the only other song we knew from the selection. All in all, it was a phenomenal night!

We had a great night eating, chatting, and singing!

All I want is a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup (Post Office – April 7)

I am truly blessed to have wonderful friends. On Thursday, one of the teachers came into our office with a note. It was for me from the post office. It said I had a package!!!!!!! I was so excited to go pick it up. A couple teachers took us there and I was so happy to see a wonderful care package from my best friend in the entire world and her family. Special thanks to the Frandsens for being AWESOME! The box contained Reeses’s (my favorite candy ever), jelly beans, magazines, Glee CDs, cheetos, and other fantastic items that absolutely made my day. It’s been a week and I’ve already listened to the CDs multiple times, eaten half the cheetos and dug into the Reese’s. What a great gift!

Pi? Pee? Phi? Phee? Like cake! Squirrel!!! (Class – April 8 )

In class on Friday, we were going over polar coordinates, and that involves using pi (the number – 3.14) quite a bit. Since we are on the other side of the world and the students speak a different language, sometimes we don’t all say things the same way. Here’s a transcript of how the whole thing went down. I swore I heard them all saying “fee” instead of “pie” last week, so I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.

First, a bit of clarification. The Greek letters pi and phi are used in math quite often. Pi is pronounced like “pie” and phi is most often pronounced like “feye” although it is sometimes pronounced like “fee”. Alright, now for the conversation.

Becca: How do you pronounce this symbol? Writes the symbol “pi” on the board.

Students: Pee!

Becca: Like fuh-fuh-fee? As in fun? That’s a different letter in English. Phi looks like this. Draws the symbol for phi.

Students: How do you say that letter?

Becca: “Fee.” Okay, I’ll try and say it your way, but if I mess up, when I say “pi”, I mean this symbol. Points to pi.

Students: We say PEE!

Becca: Oh! You say pee! Like puh-puh-pee! As in people?

Students: Yep!

Becca: Alright, instead of switching all the time, are you guys okay if I just use my word, pi, from now on? I don’t want to forget and then confuse you.

One student: Pi! Like cake!

Entire class (including Becca): Yummmm…. giggles.

Becca: Alright, so we know that an entire circle is “2 pi” radians, right?

Students: giggle giggle giggle

Becca: What’s so funny?

Students: Shhhkweeeeerrrreel!

Becca: Wait, what?

One student: SQUIRREL!!

Becca: Squirrel? What are you talking about?

Same student: Squirrel! “tupai” means “squirrel” in Indonesian!

Becca:Like, (Pantomiming a squirrel) squirrel?

Students: YES! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Entire room (including Becca): HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

So I’ve learned a new word in Bahasa, and I’m sure that I will never forget it. Tupai(pronounced like two pie) is the Indonesian word for squirrel. If you ever find yourself in Indonesia, feel free to use this bit of knowledge in whatever way you see fit.

It was one of those times when I actually felt connected with the students. We all had a great laugh, and we were all in high spirits as we finished the lesson. Little exchanges like this are what this entire experience is about. I’m learning from my students as much as (I hope) they’re learning from me. I’m looking forward to more interactions like this one!

I am student teaching in Palembang, Indonesia at the Sampoerna Academy from the beginning of March until early May. I'm teaching 11th grade math, which includes advanced function operations and trigonometry.